SÃO DOMINGOS TRADIÇOES E CONFLITOS

Abstract

The present study portrays the situation of São Domingos, a district where the Terra Ronca State Park is situated, not due to its environmental aspects, but especially, because of the oral history bias of its myths, legends and traditions. The objective of the research was to register and to document the diversity of the cultural expressions of the municipal district and to identify reasons for the reduction and disappearance of several manifestations. Therefore, the study opted for an exploratory nature based research, grounded on a qualitative approach. Data collection instruments were defined due to their purposes. Semi-structured interviews, field observations and document analysis were conducted. The Terra Ronca State Park was created in 1989 to protect a valuable speleological complex, in which seven of the thirty largest caves in Brazil are found. That municipal district, located in the goiano northeast, appeared in the period of the gold cycle and is nowadays inserted in an area considered as the poverty corridor of the State of Goiás. Its interior shelters a cultural and religious heritage, which is quite rich and diversified, as the Pilgrimage to Bom Jesus da Lapa , which has its cultural representation with masses, baptisms and parties developed inside a cave. Of the more than three hundred caves which compose the Park, the Terra Ronca cave is the best known and most surrounded by mysteries and legends. Among them, it is said that the cave served as a hiding place for the city s population when the Coluna Prestes , a group of rebels, passed through São Domingos. Nowadays, the people that live in the Park go through problems such as the reduction or disappearance of their cultural expressions, an outstanding characteristic of their regional identity. The results indicated that the implementation of the Conservation Unit of the Terra Ronca State Park was the great motivator of several conflicts, which could be noticed in issues related to the land. The Unit did not consider the reconciliation between the human occupation and the environmental preservation, provoking a strong feeling of rejection, insecurity and dissatisfaction among landowners in the area. This social-environmental conflict provoked serious reflexes on the maintenance and preservation of the cultural aspects, in particular, on the preservation of their myths, legends and traditions.